Bulgarian Communist Party

The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) was a Marxist-Leninist communist party in Bulgaria that existed from 1903 to 3 April 1990, ruling the country from 1946 to 1989. The party was opposed to World War I and supported the Russian Revolution, and it joined the Comintern in 1919 after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. During the 1940s, the party joined the Bulgarian Fatherland Front, and it came to dominate the party during World War II, supporting the uprising against the Tsardom of Bulgaria as Soviet forces invaded the country in September 1944. From 1954 to 1989, Todor Zhivkov led the party, which dominated the Bulgarian one-party state during the Cold War. Living standards increased and politics were stable, but demands for democratic reform led to Zhivkov's resignation on 17 November 1989. His successor, the liberal communist Petar Mladenov, announced the end of the single-party state on 3 April 1990, ending communist Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Socialist Party replaced the BCP, and it became a major party in Bulgaria.